Chisolm nodded. “My pleasure, sir.” He rose, turned on his heel, and strode out of the office without a word.
“Guess the young bull isn’t quite ready to rule the herd yet,” Crawford observed, still chuckling.
“That’s enough of that,” the chief said evenly, but he was looking at Payne. “Agent Payne, do you have a problem with Officer Chisolm?”
Payne clenched his jaw and didn’t answer.
“Should I take your silence as a yes?”
Crawford said, “You could, Chief. Or you could take it as one man being unhappy about the fact another man got him fired from a certain River City Police Department a few years back.”
The chief glanced at Crawford and then back at Payne. “You used to work here?”
Payne blinked slowly. “I went through the police academy and served briefly with the River City Police Department before I moved on to federal law enforcement,” he said in measured tones.
The chief remained silent. Renee could almost see the gears turning behind the thoughtful expression. Crawford drew a breath to say something, but the chief held his hand up and stopped him before he could utter a sound. His eyes remained on Payne. After a few moments he said, “Agent Payne, I am very grateful for federal assistance in this matter, and I am more than happy to have the criminals in this case charged federally. There’s no issue there. But if you have a grudge against any of my officers, I suggest you stow it. If you can’t do that, I’ll give your SAC a call and we’ll get an agent in here who doesn’t have any issues.”
Payne swallowed and shook his head. “That won’t be necessary,” he whispered. “It’s just that Officer Chisolm was not very kind to me during our training experience.”
“Tom doesn’t suffer fools,” Crawford managed to say before the chief waved his hand and cut him off again.
“I’ll take your word,” the chief said, “that this’ll be the last time we need to speak of this.”
“You have it,” Payne said.
“Good. Then let’s move on. What is your recommendation on how to move forward with this case?”
Payne took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Renee almost felt sorry for the young agent. Almost.
“Well,” Payne said, “obviously Detective Browning should continue to work this case in whatever manner he sees fit. As long as I am updated frequently, I don’t see any conflict there.”
Browning barely reacted, but Renee noticed a flicker of irritation pass across his face, which was about as expressive as the veteran detective was likely to get.
“On the overall front, I think we need to initiate some surveillance. If we properly monitor the key players, we may develop enough probable cause for a wiretap and other devices and we should be able to build a chargeable RICO case.”
Crawford snorted slightly and shook his head.
The chief glanced over at him. “You take issue with this approach, Lieutenant?”
“Yes, I do, sir,” Crawford shot back, his voice confident. “I’ve been assigned to Investigations for a lot of years and I can tell you that working the case is the only way to work a case.” Crawford looked over at Payne. “These feds are happy to carry on surveillance until the second coming, but we don’t have the resources for that. Besides, I don’t think we have the time.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning these Russians aren’t going to sit on their hands waiting for the federal government to decide there’s sufficient probable cause to make some major RICO case. Those cases take years. We don’t even have weeks if we’re going to be successful in stemming the tide here.” He pointed to Renee. “You heard what she had to say. These Russkies don’t mess around. If we’re going to get a handle on this situation, it has to be sooner, not later.”
The chief glanced at Payne and waited for his reply.
“My recommendation stands,” the young agent said briskly. “We’ve built numerous solid cases based on short-term surveillance, and the agency is more than capable of adapting and moving quickly when a situation becomes more rapidly evolving.”
“Oh, yeah,” said Crawford. “I’ve noticed that.”
Payne looked askance at Crawford.
Crawford’s eyebrows shot up. “Oh, you want examples?” He raised his thumb. “Ruby Ridge.” He raised his index finger. “Waco, Texas.”
“Waco was the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms,” Payne said.
“Federal is federal,” Crawford shot back. “And I think the reason you want to do surveillance is because that’s all you feds know how to do.”
“Surveillance is an effective tool,” Payne replied.
“I don’t disagree,” Crawford said. “But like I said, we don’t have the resources for it and we don’t have the time. Neither do you. You don’t even have enough resources to guard your own protected witness.”
“I might be able to break free some additional resources,” Payne began, but Crawford shook his head.
“It doesn’t matter, because like I said, we don’t have the time to build a case like the one you’re talking about.”
Payne leaned back in his chair and glared condescendingly at Crawford. Then he said, “Is Sergeant Morgan still the range master here?”
“What the hell has that got to do with anything?” Crawford asked.
“Humor me,” Payne said.
“He is,” Reott answered.
“Well,” Payne said, “I recall him to be a very gruff man of few words, and those words were often repeated. I assume this was to ensure that the students learned these lessons that he deemed critical to firing accurately and surviving in a gunfight.”
“Duh,” Crawford said. He glanced at Reott, Renee, and then the chief. “What’s the point?”
“The point is, that one of his more common statements was you can’t miss fast enough. Have you ever heard him say that, Lieutenant?”
“Sure,” Crawford said.
“And do you understand what that tenet means?”
Crawford leaned forward and lowered his voice. “Don’t talk to me like you’re a professor, you little shit. I don’t work for you.”
“But you do work for me,” the chief said. “And I’d like to hear the agent’s point.”
Crawford leaned back, staring daggers at Payne. The agent seemed more comfortable now that he had the chief’s support. “As I understand it,” he continued, “that means you should take enough time to be sure of your shot because you might only get one, and if you hurry the shot and you miss, it could be game over. Do I have that right?”
Crawford didn’t answer.
Payne smiled wanly. “I’ll take your silence as a yes. So, with that in mind I’m sure you can see how this philosophy applies to our current situation. If we rush this case-that is, if we fire too quickly-we will surely miss. And that would be a costly mistake.”
The room fell silent. Renee glanced from face to face, fascinated by the mixture of ego and talent in the room. She wondered sometimes why men who had reached powerful positions couldn’t divest themselves of their ego and cooperate to reach a common goal. But she’d come to the conclusion that their ego not only got them into powerful positions, but made them effective there.
The chief leaned back in his chair. “I appreciate all of you coming to this meeting. I’m going to accept the agent’s recommendation as a course of action.”
Crawford sighed, but the chief ignored him.
“Detective Browning, continue your investigation independent of any Bureau activity. Copy all your reports to Agent Payne.”
Detective Browning nodded. The chief’s gaze fell on to Agent Payne. “Agent, we will continue to provide an officer to the protection detail at the hotel. If you require any backup for emergency reasons during the course of your surveillance, please contact either Lieutenant Crawford or Captain Reott, depending on whether you would prefer uniform or investigative personnel. However,” he added, “we do not have sufficient resources to provide you with any other assistance in your surveillance activities.”
Payne’s expression, which had been noticeably gloating, fell. “No assistance?” he asked.